Good Stuff

So, this was pretty cool.  We had some high-tech sharing this week.  Our friend, Logan, made a cool Star Wars lego machine at home and he wanted to share it with us.  Since he knew it might fall apart in his backpack on the way to school, he and his mom came up with a great idea.  His mom took a photo of the creation and e-mailed it to Mrs. Kurt.  At sharing time, Mrs. Kurt put the picture up on the SMART Board and Logan got to do his sharing.  It was really great for us to see what Logan made and it didn't fall apart at all.  Great idea...thanks, Logan (and Logan's mom).

 

In Gym, we have been having fun learning some volleyball skills.  As you can see, the nets are set a little bit lower than they would be for a regulation match!  We have been practicing hitting balloons over the nets, and we even practiced with beach balls.  It has been so much fun and we are getting some good exercise!

  

In Music, Mrs. Treb read us the story "Hide and Snake".   

 

In Reading Workshop, we have been talking lots about connections and making connections in our reading.  Today we tried something new.  We each had to choose a just right book from our classroom book baskets.  Then we read our book.  Next, we completed a connections worksheet that told our name, the title of the book we read and what our connection to the story was.  It was our first time trying this and Mrs. Kurt said we were rock stars!

The best part was when we all finished our worksheets, we had a Book Talk.  We got to share with our classmates the title of the book we read and our connections.  It was really cool because we might have heard about a new book that someone else read that we want to read now!

Good stuff, Kindergartners!

Reflecting on ImpactLives

This morning, we spent quite a bit of time reflecting on our ImpactLives experience.  We reviewed the entry on our blog from last Friday, talked about how we felt while we were packing food, and agreed that while we felt really good about the great deed we had done, we still felt some sadness for the people in Africa that we were helping.  We decided to do a community writing project to show our feelings.

Community writing involves everyone.  We came up with ideas on what to write and everyone shared the pen to write the words.  We illustrated our writing and hung it in the hall.  Tomorrow we will write individual reflections on the day.

ImpactLives

Well, today was the day.  As a school, Northview Elementary raised over $8,500 and packed over 49,000 meals to be shipped to Africa.  Thank you to everyone who contributed in any way, volunteered or supported our effort to make a difference on a global level.  We worked hard, had fun and learned that even at five and six years old, we DO make a difference in the world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

Sea Creature Handfuls and Ways to be Helpful

In Math today, we learned how to do a new workplace.  It is called Sea Creature Handfuls.  It teaches us  more about estimating.  You take a handful (or two) of the sea creatures from the tub.  Put them in a pile and estimate (or guess) how many you think there are.  Then you color in the ten frames on the worksheet to show how many you estimated.

Next, using the counting mats, you count to find out exactly how many sea creatures you pulled out.  Then you color in the ten frames to show how many sea creatures you had on the same worksheet.  

In Social Studies, our unit this week is called "How Can I Be A Good Helper At School?"  Miss Odeen read us the story "Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler" by Margery Cuyler.  In this story, the kids think it is cool to be rude and impolite.  Their teacher, Mrs. Ruler, convinces them that it is cooler to be kind.

After the story was done, we decided to write ways that we could be helpful.  It could be at school, at home or in the community.

When we were finished writing, we each shared our ideas.  Then we took a museum walk to admire everyone's pictures, too.  We discovered that we are good helpers at school, home and in the community!

Editing and Being Helpful

This morning, Miss Odeen read us a story.  It was a nonfiction story that she wrote about herself!  We learned some pretty cool stuff about her.

In Writing Workshop, we are learning to become editors.  Editors help writers by checking their writing.  They read through it and make sure the writer is using upper case letters, spaces and punctuation marks.

Miss Odeen read us a story called "Being Helpful".  Then we made a list of what being helpful looks like and sounds like.

  

Miss Odeen is also checking to see how well we can sort things.  We are having a great week!